100 Leadership Quotes I’m Memorizing by End of 2015

While some collect coins, spoons, stamps, I am an avid collector of quotes and books. Since I was 15, I have collected thousands of quotes. Two years ago, this avocation inspired me to create a quote book which I’m offering FREE to all my readers. As a student of leadership, I hope you will use these quotes as a resource for future blog posts, speeches, and books.

1. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. — Peter. F Drucker

2. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. — John Quincy Adams

3. Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what do do and let them surprise you with their results. — George S. Patton

4. Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

5. Great leadership is about human experiences. It’s not a formula or a program. It is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others. It is an attitude, not a routine — Lance Secretan

6. Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. — Stephen R. Covey

7. Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

8. Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. — Norman Schwarzkopf

9. If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

10. Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

11. A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. — John C. Maxwell

13. Followers are the gem cutters of leadership coaxing out its full brilliance. — Ira Chaleff

14. A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. — Rosalynn Carter

15. Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. — T.S. Eliot

16. The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. — William Arthur Ward

17. Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. — Albert Schweitzer

18. In a battle between two ideas, the best one doesn’t necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it. — Seth Godin

19. Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers. — Harry Truman

20. If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything. — Tom Rath

21. Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. — Colin Powell

22. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality; the last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. — Max De Pree

23. If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants. — Isaac Newton

24. My own definition of leadership is this: the capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence. — General Montgomery

25. The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already. — John Buchan

26. Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them. — Stephen Covey

27. A leader is a dealer in hope. — Napoleon Bonaparte

28. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

29. I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. — Ralph Nader

30. People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. — John C. Maxwell

31. In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock — Thomas Jefferson

32. Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. — Brian Tracy

33. All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. — John Kenneth Galbraith

34. The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. — Theodore Roosevelt

35. Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline. ― James C. Collins

36. The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things. ― Ronald Reagan

37. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. ― Warren Bennis

38. The price of greatness is responsibility. ― Winston Churchill

39. I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. ― Albert Einstein

40. Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ― Harold R. McAlindon

41. I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: Try to please everybody. ― Herbert Swope

42. You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things. ― Mother Teresa

43. People don’t buy what you do ; they buy why you do it – Simon Sinek

44. Great vision without great people is irrelevant. ― James. C. Collins

45. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. ― Theodore Roosevelt

46. A leader’s most powerful ally is his or her own example. ― John Wooden

47. Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. ― John C. Maxwell

48. Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard. ― Warren Bennis

49. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you, shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. ― Jesus of Nazareth

50. The spiritual leader should outpace the rest of the church, above all, in prayer. ― Oswald Sanders

51. Desiring to excel is not a sin. It is motivation that determines ambition’s character. Our Lord never taught against the urge to high achievement, but He did expose and condemn unworthy motivation. ― Oswald Sander

52. You can impress from a distance, but you can only impact up close. ― Howard Hendricks

53. He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader. ― Aristotle

54. My great concern for you in life is not that you will fail, but that you will succeed in doing the wrong things. ― Howard Hendricks

55. Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway. ― Eleanor Roosevelt

56. It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him. ― John Steinbeck

57. Always do right. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ― Mark Twain

58. We can do no great things – only small things with great love. ― Mother Teresa

59. Where there is no vision, the people perish. ― Proverbs 29:18

60. We must be the change we wish to see in the world. ― Mahatma Gandhi

61. Being in ministry requires a deep and intensive love for people. ― Dr. Aubrey Malphurs

61. Leaders aren’t born, they are made. ― Vince Lombardi

62. A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. Max Lucado

63. Whatever you are, be a good one. ― Abraham Lincoln

64. If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing. ― Benjamin Franklin

65. Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. ― John F. Kennedy

69. A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see and who sees before others see. – Leroy Eimes

70. To lead people, walk beside them. As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence … When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!'” – Lao Tsu

71. A big part of leadership is recognizing that your fruit often grows on other peoples trees. – Todd Adkins

72. Refuse to be average. Let your heart soar as high as it will. -A.W. Tozer

73. My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side. – Lincoln

74. Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. – Proverbs 4:23

75. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. – President Abraham Lincoln

76. He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. — Aristotle

77. No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it. —Andrew Carnegie

78. The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. — Harvey Firestone

79. It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership. — Nelson Mandela

80. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. — Steve Jobs

81. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. — Steve Jobs

82. People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives. — Theodore Roosevelt

83. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. — Thomas Paine

84. The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. — Henry A. Kissinger

85. Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. — Tom Peters

86. Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best. — Chester W. Nimitz

87. Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. – Eleanor Roosevelt88. The more seriously you take your growth, the more seriously people will take you. – John C. Maxwell89. Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential. – John C. Maxwell

90. As long as you’re green, you’re growing. As soon as you’re ripe, you start to rot. – Ray Kroc

91. I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. – Bruce Lee

92. Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. – Proverbs 16:3

93. Success is final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill

94. I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through – then follow through. – EV Rickenbacker

95. The best way to lead people into the future is to connect with them deeply in the present. – James Kouzes and Barry Posne

96. If you are not willing to risk the unusual you will have to settle for the ordinary. – John Rohn

97. Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, “what’s in it for me.?” – Brian Tracy

98. If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself. – D.L Moody

99. It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. – St. Francis

100. You teach what you know; you reproduce what you are. – Leif Hetland

Question: Which leadership quote did I miss? What can I add to the list?